Ash and Roses
by Mnemosyne's Elegy
Summary: They lived a thousand lives in a thousand worlds with a thousand pieces. Sometimes they were friends, sometimes lovers. Sometimes they laughed, sometimes cried. Sometimes their endings were beautiful, sometimes tragic. Sometimes they were happy, sometimes broken. Sometimes things ended in gray ashes, sometimes in scarlet roses. But always, they loved. Grayza week 2018.
1. Playlist

**Note: So, apparently it's Grayza week. I never thought I'd bother with doing any of these shipping week things, but AmyNChan talked me into it, so you can thank or curse her lol (But this is the first thing I've written for FT in a few months, so maybe you should thank her for helping to ease me back into the fandom. Although I'm still mostly writing for Noragami at the moment, sorry.) I was extremely unimpressed when I first saw the prompts, which were definitely not my cup of tea. But then I figured out how to subvert most of them and put a twist on them, which then got me excited about writing them. Oops. So some of them are a tad unconventional, but that's what makes them interesting, right? :X**

 **Btw, the summary is way more dramatic than it needs to be. It's a fancy way of saying that this is a collection of one-shots that aren't necessarily connected unless I say so, although you're welcome to string any of them together if you so desire.**

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 **Playlist**

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The sun was still raining down bright afternoon light on the city when Erza fled the guild. Her friends meant well and she knew they were just trying to help, but it was one of those days when she didn't want to be helped, not really. There were gloomy storm clouds gathering in her peripheral vision, seeping in through the cracks in her sanity. Gray, lifeless clouds.

She fumbled with her key, the cool metal nearly slipping from between her fingers before she slotted it into the lock and twisted the knob. Shutting the door behind her, she slumped back against it with a sigh. The key dangled from her fingers as she closed her eyes and rested her head back against the wood.

She and Gray had moved into this apartment last year. It had always been a warm and inviting place. Home. Except when Gray wasn't home with her, when they were off on their separate adventures and Erza came back to an empty apartment where the air felt still and heavy and silent.

It felt empty now. Had never felt emptier.

The air escaped her lips in a sighing breath, and she pushed herself away from the door to drop the key on the small hall table with a tinkling clatter next to the vase of roses. Gray had brought them home before going on his last job. Erza almost smiled as she remembered the adorably sheepish look on his face as he handed over the bouquet and suggested the apartment might feel less empty with a splash of color. Neither of them had particularly enjoyed coming back to an empty home while the other was out on a long job, even though Fairy Tail mages were in high demand these days and they knew they were sometimes needed in different places.

The roses had been a vibrant red the day Erza had put them in the vase and arranged them on the table so that they were the first thing she saw when she walked in the door. By now they had withered and dried, the petals curling and browning while their soft texture gave way to a leathery decay and then hardened like dead, brittle leaves. They weren't very appealing anymore and had none of the vibrant cheer and beauty they had once had, but she left them in their desiccated brown clumps and allowed their fallen petals to gather around the base of the crystal vase and dot the tabletop. She had told herself she would keep them until Gray returned.

She plucked one of the withered petals from a wilted stem. Her fingertip caught on a thorn as she withdrew it, and the sharp point scratched her skin and drew a faint line of red across the whorls of her fingerprint. Wincing against the sting, she watched as a bead of blood welled from the cut. She rubbed the petal between her fingers. Her thumb painted it crimson, one last homage to its glory days.

She rubbed harder, rolling the dry petal around and around until it crackled and began dissolving into grayish-brown dust like ash, flecked with crimson blood. The crumbs slipped between her fingers, sand falling through an hourglass, and dusted the tabletop. She plucked a new petal.

 _He loves me, he loves me not_.

Her lips curled into a thin, bitter smile at the girlish naïveté of the thought, a relic of days long past. She hadn't needed such insecure games for a long time.

But the roses' skeletons made her miss Gray even more. She just wanted him to come home.

She pulled the miniature communications lacrima out of her pocket and tucked the petal behind it as she activated the screen and drifted into the bedroom. Throwing herself down onto the bed with her back cradled by the mattress, she held up the device and squinted at the interface.

Gray had bought them a pair not long after they had started dating so that they could keep in touch when they were apart and chat whenever they wanted to. Erza had grown used to the devices when they'd used them to keep in touch while Gray was undercover with Avatar, and she had thought it a splendid idea even though they had spent a great deal of time together to start with. She had been particularly grateful for Gray's foresight the first time she had gone on a solo quest that had taken much longer than anticipated. It was comforting to be able to stay connected.

Now she opened the message log of her lacrima. There was a short list of voice messages Gray had left when she missed his calls. Right now, she needed to hear his voice.

She selected the first message, turned the volume all the way up, and closed her eyes as she folded her hands across her stomach with the lacrima held reverently between. Gray's voice filled the air, breathing life back into the empty space. It was a little tinny on the recording, but it was music to her ears.

 _"Hey, Erza. Just checking in. Hope everything's going well on your job and you'll be home soon. I miss you already. I mean, everyone's still hanging around, but it's not the same without you, you know?"_

Erza did know. It was never quite the same, even with the rest of her friends around to cheer her up. Waiting around for him to come home was the worst.

 _"But I've been helping Mira out and sneaking the latest chapters of Lucy's novel to read, so at least I've got something to keep me occupied."_ He laughed, and Erza smiled at the ceiling. She could hear the faint roar of voices in the background and knew he was in the guild. _"Don't worry, everything's fine here. The guild's still in one piece and–"_

A crash sounded in the background, loud and violent. Right on cue. Erza knew each of these recordings by heart now, had listened to them so many times that she knew exactly what had been going on, anticipated every interruption, could recite every word Gray spoke.

 _"Hey!"_ Gray's voice was muffled now as he held his hand over the speaker in a vain attempt to block out the sound. _"Quit destroying things, flame brain! I'm on the phone with Erza, you know. She's going to be pissed if you wreck the guild while she's gone."_ Natsu mumbled something in the background, and Gray sneered something unintelligible back before clearing his throat and uncovering the speaker so that his voice was clear again. _"Uh… Don't mind that. Natsu just…tripped. Loudly. Don't worry. The guild's totally fine."_ Another loud thump and the sound of splintering wood. _"…Mostly. A-anyway, be safe and come back soon. Can't wait to have you back. Love you."_

The recording clicked and went dead, and Erza could imagine Gray hanging up and immediately turning on Natsu to berate him. Or, more likely, to pick a fight with him.

She played the next recording, and Gray's voice filled the silence again. This time he sounded panicked, like he was scrambling to salvage the situation.

 _"Erza, hey, it's me. So, uh, something went wrong with your cake. You know, the one I was supposed to pick up today? Yeah, uh… Natsu sort of ruined it. I swear it wasn't me! Anyway, I went back to try getting a replacement, but they can't do it on such short notice. They have some premade ones, but they're out of strawberries or something ridiculous like that. I swear I tried convincing them to just bake another strawberry one, but they're being real stubborn about it. So I can get a different flavor, or go to the bakery on the other side of town and see if they have anything, but I know you don't like their cake as much. So… Yeah, I'm not sure what you want to do. Call me back and let me know what you'd prefer, 'kay? I'm really sorry."_

Erza chuckled at his obvious panic. She might have yelled at him a bit that day, but she had forgiven him and made do with an inferior cake. That was so long ago that it felt like another lifetime.

She scrolled down to the next message.

 _"Hey, sorry to call out of the blue."_ His melancholy bled into every word, and his voice was tight with pain even as he tried to smooth it out. _"I'm not…doing so great tonight. I mean, I'm okay. It's not like that. Just…I could really use you right now. Give me a call back? I mean, only if you aren't busy or anything. It's not that big of a deal. Sorry, never mind, I'm okay."_

Erza still remembered getting out of the shower and finding the message on her lacrima, listening to it and calling him back. They had talked all night until light had begun bleeding over the horizon, about everything and nothing. They both had scars, and Gray had often struggled with his.

Erza remembered how worried she had been, because he always kept his problems to himself and something must have been wrong if he was calling about them. But then she had been…grateful, maybe. That he had turned to her when usually he would paste on a smile and pretend everything was fine. It had felt like a milestone of sorts, and she had been honored that he had chosen to confide in her and accept her support. And he didn't suddenly open up and tell her about every little thing after that, but he _had_ begun slowly opening up more and more, and she had done the same alongside him. Until they could talk to each other about things they normally kept close to their chests. Until they knew more about each other than anyone else could imagine.

The thought made her want to both smile and cry, so she quickly moved to the next message.

 _"Happy birthday!"_ Gray said cheerfully. _"Don't tell me you're asleep already? Tsk, tsk. It's exactly midnight, so I get to be number one again! We're going to have tons of fun, promise. I've got all sorts of plans for once we escape the guild. It'll be great! Anyway, I'll let you get to sleep. Love you, babe. Hope you get enough rest to make up for the sugar rush you're going to get from eating all that cake!"_

Erza's laugh rasped along her throat. Gray had turned it into a game to always be the first one to wish her happy birthday. One time, before they had moved in together, he had climbed all the way up the wall of the Fairy Hills dormitory to knock on her window exactly at midnight. He'd always been such a sweetheart about things like that.

The next message made her smile even before it started playing.

 _"What's taking you so long? Seriously, I need you to get back here as soon as humanly possible."_ Gray's voice was tight with irritation, and she could imagine him pacing about in circles and scowling into the lacrima. _"I swear, I am going to strangle this bastard if you don't come rescue me right now. He's driving me up the wall. Why did we think it was a good idea to let him stay here? Can we kick him out to find a hotel? Please, Erza, I'm dying here."_

In the background, Lyon laughed. _"Erza, tell your husband to chill out. He's still so easy to rile up. And you can't kick me out. I came to visit you, baby brother. I know you love me."_

 _"Did I ask you to visit me?"_ Gray snapped. _"I think not. Shut up, Lyon."_ To the lacrima, he added, with a pleading note in his voice, _"Please hurry up. I don't want to spend the rest of my life in jail because I lost it and murdered him when you weren't here to stop me."_

 _"Like you could kill me,"_ Lyon retorted, voice muffled but clearly amused.

 _"Don't tempt me. I'm sorely tempted already. Erza, come rescue my sanity, please."_

Erza chuckled breathily and fingered the lacrima humming softly against her stomach. With her eyes closed, she could almost imagine Gray right beside her.

That had been a long visit, after which Gray had sworn to never let his adoptive brother stay in their apartment again. A resolution that had lasted right up until Lyon's next visit. As annoying as the bickering could be, it was fun to watch them together. Even when they were always fighting and driving each other crazy, it was easy to see how much they cared.

The next message was different, and it was the one that made Erza's heart flutter and warm. The voices were muffled and a bit indistinct, because the lacrima was still in Gray's pocket and the call had been entirely accidental.

 _"–that all?"_ asked a girl's voice.

 _"Yeah, thanks,"_ said Gray.

 _"Roses, huh?"_ the girl said, presumably making small talk as she rang up the purchase. Erza had imagined this scene a thousand times in her mind, imagined each expression and gesture until she could see it all clear as day behind her eyelids. _"Are you going to ask out a lucky girl?"_

 _"Oh, no. They're for my wife."_ He laughed sheepishly, a little wearily. _"I'm in the doghouse."_

 _"Ah, apology flowers? I get a lot of guys in here complaining about girlfriends and buying flowers to make up with them."_

 _"Hey, I'm not complaining. I mean, I'm totally in the right here, but… Well, I love her. She's a wonderful woman and means the world to me. If I have to give up an argument and apologize… Well, she can have her way. I'm not going to keep fighting over something silly just because I want to 'win'. It's not worth it. I'd rather have her than a hollow victory, so apologies and flowers it is. She's more important than winning."_

 _"Awww, how sweet! She sounds like a lucky woman."_

Gray chuckled tiredly. _"She might disagree with you at the moment. But anyway–"_

A click cut off the recording as the allowed time for messages expired. The very corners of Erza's lips twitched upwards, although her eyes remained resolutely shut.

She couldn't remember what they had been fighting about now. Something stupid. They both had hot tempers, and although they usually got along beautifully, sometimes they fought. She had found that message before Gray had showed up with a bouquet of roses and an apology heavy with its sincerity, and it had knocked the fight right out of her. They had been feuding for days, but hearing his unguarded words meant more than even the apology he had prepared for her.

She had still let him give it to her, of course, and the flowers too. She had let him shuffle his feet and wait nervously for her judgment for a few minutes. And then she had pulled out her lacrima and played the recording. The stunned look on his face and flush that crept up his neck and across his cheeks had been _so_ worth it. And then she had kissed him senseless and magnanimously agreed to call the fight a draw instead of claiming victory.

Because he was right in more ways than one. She loved him and he meant the world to her, and he was worth more than some stupid fight and more important than winning.

The memory made her heart ache, but she let the sweetness linger in the silence for a few moments before taking a deep breath and moving to the last message. Her hands tightened around the lacrima as Gray's voice filtered through the air again.

 _"Hey, Erza. Just calling to check in. Sorry I missed you. Well, it looks like I might've finished the worst of this job now. Some of these guys are scary dangerous, but I've captured most of them and turned them over to the authorities. It's mostly just cleanup now. Sorry it's taking so long… I expected to be done days ago. But I should be done soon and on my way home. I love you, Erza. Don't worry, I'll be home before you know it! See you soon!"_

A painful knot twisted beneath Erza's sternum, tightening her chest so that her breath was choked and strangled as it fought its way up her throat and shuddered in the still air like a sob. The tears finally spilled over and tracked down her cheeks, and she trembled with the sobs rattling about her ribcage.

"You liar!" she wailed, sitting up abruptly and throwing the lacrima across the room as hard as she could.

It hit the wall with a loud thud and fell to the floor beside the dresser. Her heart immediately clenched in panic, and she jumped out of bed to rush across the room and pick up the device. She examined it, her heart in her throat until she made sure it still worked and she hadn't ruined it. A shuddering sigh escaped her lips, half relieved and half heartbroken.

She couldn't afford to ruin the lacrima. This was her playlist of broken memories and stolen moments. It was the last thing she had left of Gray, the last place she could hear his voice. She crushed the rose petal between her fingers. That and the roses crumbling to ashes in the hall.

She stepped back and fell backwards onto the bed. Closing her eyes, she pressed her trembling lips together against the salt on her cheeks and began playing the messages all over again from the beginning.

 _"Hey, Erza. Just checking in…"_

Again and again and again.

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 **Note: What? That _totally_ counts as a playlist. Just like the one on my phone, which starts with the crazy Chinese lady who keeps calling me and goes through the scam warning me to call in before I get arrested for crimes I didn't commit and the three hundred people calling me about job opportunities. It's gold, man.  
**

 **Oh, I also only found out about this a little while ago while in the middle of writing something else, so I've been scrambling to throw something together. So sorry if these are a little more unpolished than usual x.x**


	2. Cooking Adventure

**.**

 **Cooking Adventure**

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Erza clutched the creased page in her hand and marched up to Gray's door like a soldier preparing for battle. She rapped on the door smartly, and tapped her foot on the ground as she waited for him to answer. The floor creaked from inside the apartment as footsteps thumped along the floorboards. The door swung inward, and Gray blinked at her in surprise.

"Erza?" His face lit up in a wide smile as he overcame his surprise. "Hey, how's it going? It's awfully early. What's up?"

It was already 7:30, but Gray's brain rarely woke completely before 9:00. Or 10:00. Or sometimes noon. Erza found his morning grogginess rather amusing—and even a bit adorable sometimes, if she did say so herself—but she was determined to make a morning lark out of him yet.

He seemed awake enough this morning, though, which was just as well. Erza was ready and raring to go and wanted to get an early start.

"Happy birthday," she said.

He frowned, furrowed his brow, hesitated a few seconds longer, and cleared his throat awkwardly. "Um… My birthday is tomorrow."

He sounded almost apologetic, like he was a little embarrassed on her behalf. Erza just waved him off impatiently.

"I know that," she said. "But tomorrow we'll be celebrating with the guild all day, so the two of us are going to celebrate a day early with just us. Let me in."

Gray stepped aside to let her bustle past, and a pleased grin tugged at the corners of his lips. "That's a great idea, actually. What do you want to do?"

"I have lots of plans for the afternoon. But before that, I need to make your cake."

"My…cake? Don't worry about it. There will be cake tomorrow."

"But we're celebrating today, so we need a cake," Erza said with a tone that brooked no argument. She waved the page in her hand and headed for the kitchen, Gray trailing after her. "Mira gave me a recipe. Just entertain yourself for a couple hours, and we'll do something fun in the afternoon."

"If we really need a cake, can't we just buy one?"

"I'm going to make it myself." Erza stopped right in the doorway to the kitchen and turned back to fix Gray with a hard look. He nearly tripped over himself in his haste to stop before running into her. "I can do it."

They had only been dating for a few months, and this was the first birthday they'd celebrated since. Erza wanted it to be _perfect_. She was still new to this whole girlfriend thing, and it had taken her a while to come around to the idea instead of waiting on Jellal forever. It had all seemed very romantic in theory, but she had quickly discovered that she could only handle so much romance and was often awkward and uncomfortable with displays of affection and the like, although she was getting better. Gray had been very good about respecting her boundaries and taking things slow for her, and she wanted to do something nice for him in return. She was determined to make his extra birthday perfect and romantic and everything he could want.

"Um… Erza?" Gray cleared his throat again, indecision raging behind his eyes as he debated the wisdom of his next words. "Remember that time you exploded scrambled eggs? Or when you set the kitchen on fire trying to heat up leftovers? Or that time–?"

" _I get it_ ," Erza growled, heat creeping up her neck and splashing across her cheeks. So maybe she didn't have a great deal of…culinary talent. In fact, she could burn water if she took her eyes off it for half a second. But she was _determined_ to make this work. "Mira said it wasn't that hard. How bad could it be? You think I can't do it?"

"I'm sure you can do anything you put your mind to," he said in a conciliatory tone, holding his hands up in surrender. "You want some help?"

"Absolutely not! It's your birthday. You can't see the cake until it's finished, so shoo."

His eyebrow nearly jumped right up off his forehead and his eyes shone with disbelief. "You're kicking me out of my own apartment?"

"Just out of your kitchen. You can stay in any other room, if you want."

Gray opened his mouth, closed it again. "You know what, knock yourself out. Shout if you need anything."

He retreated to throw himself down on the couch, shaking his head and muttering about getting some more sleep. Satisfied, Erza strode across the kitchen and smoothed the recipe out on the counter. Mira's neat, loopy handwriting curled across the page in a list of ingredients and step-by-step instructions. Honestly, it couldn't be that hard. She had the basic recipe with everything spelled out.

The one tricky thing was that she wanted to make an _ice cream_ cake. She had asked around, but no one, not even Mira or Lucy, had ever made an ice cream cake before or really knew how it was done. Erza figured that she could wing it. She would just use the normal cake recipe and find somewhere to add in the ice cream. Gray was less than enthused by overly sweet cake—he couldn't stand Erza's favorite strawberry cake and said he could feel it rotting his teeth out—but this recipe was for vanilla, which hopefully wouldn't be as sweet, and he loved ice cream. It would be perfect, as long as she did it right.

Repeating the list of ingredients under her breath so she didn't forget what she was looking for, she ransacked the fridge and pantry. She really hoped Gray had everything. It hadn't occurred to her to bring her own ingredients.

Ten minutes later, she had covered half the counter in an array of foodstuffs. It probably wouldn't have taken half as long if she'd just asked Gray where he kept everything, but she wanted to do it all herself and didn't need to bother him.

Then she set about tearing apart the cabinets and drawers in search of the proper utensils. The more cabinets she had to open, the more frustrated she got, the harder she slammed them. Why did kitchens need that many cabinets, anyway?

"What are you looking for?" Gray called from the other room.

Erza froze, catching the corner of the door just before it went crashing back against the cabinet. Well. This was slightly mortifying. She debated ignoring his offer of help—after all, she wanted to do it _herself_ —but tamped down her pride. The faster she finished this, the sooner they could do something together.

"I need a bowl," she said reluctantly. "Not like a normal one, but a big–"

"Mixing bowls are in the third cabinet to the right of the sink. Should be a hand mixer in there too, and a cake tin in the cabinet next to it. There's a whisk and spatula in the drawer to the left of the fridge."

Erza closed the cabinet door slowly. It was starting to sound like Gray had a better idea of how to make a cake than she did. She found the named implements exactly where he had said and added them to the collection of bits and bobs spilling across the counter.

"Why do you have so much stuff?" she wondered aloud. "I didn't think you really cooked."

"I don't," Gray said in that absent tone of voice that meant he had picked up something to keep himself occupied and was only giving her half his attention. "But it never hurts to be prepared, and I do dabble sometimes. Believe it or not, I can cook a mean steak. I can bake a cake, too. Not a fancy one, but an edible one. Sure you don't want some help?"

"I'm fine, thanks," Erza huffed. She was definitely going to make Gray prove himself and cook for her sometime, but after his birthday was over.

Once everything was gathered together, mixing everything in a bowl was a breeze. Even if she dropped half a dozen pieces of eggshell into the batter and had to spend five minutes fishing them back out. She thought she got them all. Most of them. What were the chances Gray would notice, anyway?

"Make sure you spray the pan," Gray said from the other room, like he knew exactly what she was about to do. "So that the cake doesn't stick. Top shelf of the pantry."

"Of course I know to spray the pan!" Erza said indignantly as she rushed to the pantry and silently cursed Mira for not including it in the instructions. How was she supposed to know stuff like that on her own?

She was then faced with the problem that had been looming on the horizon all morning: the ice cream. She just didn't understand how you could bake ice cream into a cake without it melting. It seemed to go against every law of nature, but people managed it somehow. She eyed the bowl of batter dubiously. If she put ice cream into batter like this, it would sink to the bottom or melt into all the runny bits or something. Maybe if she baked the cake halfway first, it would be stable enough to hold the ice cream if she…cut it in half and put the ice cream in the middle. Yeah. Maybe the cake layers would insulate the ice cream so that it didn't melt.

Erza brightened considerably as she scraped the spatula along the sides of the bowl to push all the batter out into the rectangular pan. She was an absolute _genius_ for figuring this out all on her own. She wondered why Mira hadn't thought of it.

Her self-confidence was dented ever so slightly when she realized she had no idea how to work this oven. It wasn't like she had never seen an oven before, but she rarely had any need to use one and Gray's was different. The buttons were in different places. She scowled at the spread of numbers and commands like it had personally offended her.

"Gray? How do you turn on your oven?"

"Did you preheat it?" he asked absently.

She twisted around to frown out the doorway. She could just make out his legs tossed casually over the arm of the couch.

"Preheat?" she repeated. "An oven is for heating. It should heat as soon as I turn it on. Why does it need to _pre_ heat?"

Gray burst into raucous laughter, which only deepened Erza's scowl. "You've gotta set it to preheat so that it gets up to the proper temperature before you put anything in it. It takes a few minutes to heat all the way up, and cook times are for how long it takes to cook _at_ ideal temperature. If you put in food before the oven gets to the ideal temperature, your cook times will be off. Does your recipe have the temperature on it?"

Erza found the temperature listed on the page, and Gray talked her through starting the oven up and setting it to the right temperature. The timer began counting down from seven minutes, and her mouth dropped open.

"It says it's going to take seven minutes to get there!" she cried. "What am I going to do until then? Can't I just put it in now?"

"Nope. Wait it out. That's why you set it to preheat while you're prepping. You could always start making the frosting. You do have a recipe for frosting, don't you?"

"Of course!"

That seemed like an eminently sensible idea, which irked Erza since she hadn't thought of it herself. Setting aside the cake for the moment, she hastily washed a few dishes and set about dumping everything into one of the large mixing bowls. She fit the beaters into the hand mixer and eyed the controls. She assumed that the numbers listed along the dial were speed or power or some such thing. The higher the number, the faster it would mix. Erza would like it to mix as fast as possible. She turned on the device and cranked it up to the highest speed.

The beaters whirred in a frenzy, and a huge cloud of powdered sugar exploded from the bowl in a puff of white particles. Erza cursed loudly and struggled with the mixer, which continued spitting up everything she had just carefully measured and gathered.

"Erza?" Gray called. "Are you alright?"

The mixer bucked in her hand, but her fumbling fingers finally found the proper button. The beaters spun a few more times and slowed to a stop, and Erza breathed a sigh of relief. Then she noticed that the counter and floor were covered in a dusting of white with piles of powder strewn about everywhere like little snowbanks. She looked down at herself and groaned. Her shirt and skirt were covered in the stuff. When she shook out her skirt and smoothed her hands down her shirt, powdered sugar took to the air in white puffs.

"Gray? Where do you keep your broom?"

There was a long, heavy pause. "In the closet out here."

Erza traipsed over to the doorway. Gray already had the closet door open and was pulling out the broom. He turned, spotted her, and coughed out a strangled noise that sounded suspiciously like aborted laughter.

Erza's eyes narrowed. "Are you laughing at me?"

"Of course not," he said with an easy grin. He sauntered over and handed her the broom. "Just the thought of what my kitchen must look like right now makes me want to cry."

She scowled and snatched the broom, before noticing the sheaf of papers in his other hand and raising an eyebrow. "What's that?"

"Newest chapter of Lucy's manuscript. I swiped it from her apartment to read over."

"I'm sure she'll be thrilled to know that."

"Aw, she doesn't mind so much. She's finally given up trying to make me stop, so she's roped me into being part of the peer review group with Levy. It's awesome. I get to read her stuff without harassment _and_ I get to critique everything. I like to mark up every typo I find just to annoy her. Great stuff."

Erza pouted, not sure why that made a green flicker of jealousy burst to life in her chest. "You don't get excited to read _my_ stories," she said sulkily.

Gray's eyebrows climbed slowly up his forehead and disappeared into his hairline. "You don't write stories…"

"Well, I'm going to," she declared. "You'll read it, right?"

He tilted his head and eyed her curiously. "Of course. But is that really what you want to do? You've never shown an interest in it before, and it's a lot of work."

That gave Erza pause. Did she _really_ want to spend months and months of her life slaving away over a manuscript? No, probably not. And she knew absolutely nothing about writing. But that had never stopped her from trying before! Perhaps she could set her goals a little lower to start with, though.

"I'll write a _play_ ," she declared, pleased with her own brilliance. "It'll be shorter and easier, plus we'll get to act it out for the guild! You and I can be the leads. It'll be tons of fun!"

Gray scratched his head. "You want to act it out? You…do remember that job where we took over for the acting troupe and you got horrible stage fright and could barely string two words together?"

"But this is just in front of the guild. I'm sure it will be fine. I'll get started right after your birthday. Until then, I'd better go finish up."

"Uh… Okay. Try stirring everything together with a spatula before mixing it so that there's not as much loose powder. And for heaven's sake, put the speed on low."

That sounded like taking all the fun out of it to Erza, but she just nodded and set about sweeping up the floor and counters. When the timer on the oven wailed loudly enough for her to nearly jump out of her skin, she stuck the cake inside and made a mental note of what would be approximately the halfway point.

She had no idea how much of the mixture had escaped the bowl, so she guesstimated and threw in a little more of everything because she didn't feel like measuring everything all over again. Remarkably, Gray's advice _did_ lead to far fewer puffs of powder clouding the air. She had never suspected he knew anything about cooking at all.

"Hey, I'm going out for a few minutes," Gray called. "I'll be back in a little while."

"Okay!"

The door opened and clicked shut before Erza thought to ask where he was going, but she just shrugged it off. She was sure she could handle the rest by herself.

She played around with mixing different colors of icing before pulling a carton of vanilla ice cream out of the freezer. She hadn't thought to check to make sure there was ice cream beforehand. Gray _always_ had ice cream in his freezer.

She pulled the cake out of the oven and poked at it until she was satisfied that it had enough body to it. Her plans were nearly doused with cold water when she realized she didn't have room to cut off the top of the cake while it was still in the pan, but she banged around the kitchen until she found a flat baking tray to dump the cake out on. She was a problem-solving _genius_.

The cake was a strange, spongy, wet texture since it was only half-baked, but she worked a knife through it easily enough, cutting it into two layers. A few more minutes of hunting turned up an ice cream scoop, and she dumped large quantities of ice cream on the bottom layer before putting the top back on. The more, the better. Gray loved ice cream. Erza squished down the top to cover the gap in the sides as best as possible, hoping it would help insulate the ice cream more.

She stuck her creation back in the oven and went back to swirling food coloring in the icing. Lucy had suggested she make a piping bag out of a plastic baggie with the corner cut off, so Erza followed her instructions and practiced her penmanship on the bottom of the empty cake pan she'd flipped over.

It turned out to be harder than it looked. It took more strength to force the icing out of the hole than she'd expected, which shouldn't be a problem for her except when she squeezed too hard and exploded her first piping bag in a shower of frosting globs. She was more careful with her second attempt, but a bigger problem presented itself: writing neatly in icing was _impossible_. It always came out wobbly and wiggly, too thick or too thin, lopsided and slanting.

She was still struggling with this endeavor when the oven timer began blaring again. This cheered her up immediately, because the cake was finally done and now she only had to wait for it to cool before frosting it and writing something that hopefully wasn't too illegible. And then she and Gray could _eat_ said cake and go out to do something fun.

But alas, it was not to be.

When she opened the oven door, she was greeted with a horrific sight. The cake had disintegrated into a runny blob, apparently turned to mush by the melting ice cream. And since she had transferred it to a flat sheet tray, the liquid mass had oozed over the sides to congeal on the bottom of the oven beneath the racks. There was whitish goo covering _everything_.

Apparently, the ice cream had not been sufficiently insulated after all.

Erza sat down right there on the floor in front of the open oven blasting heat on her face and began bawling her eyes out. There was no saving this. She had ruined the cake and ruined the perfect birthday celebration for Gray.

"Erza? Hey, are you okay?"

She scrubbed at her eyes and sniffled loudly as Gray dropped something on the table and hurried over, concern written into every line of his face.

"I ruined the cake," she mumbled, her voice trembling. "I thought I'd make an ice cream cake since you like ice cream more than cake, but I didn't know how and it just melted everywhere."

Gray blinked at her. "I don't think they normally bake the–" He broke off as he got a look at the interior of the oven. His eyes went wide as dinner plates and his face paled visibly. "Holy crap. What–?" He shook his head and closed the oven door, looking a bit queasy. "Never mind that. I'll clean it up later."

"I'm sorry I ruined your birthday," Erza choked out past her tears.

"Aw, you didn't. Hey, look what I've got."

Gray slipped his hand into hers, and Erza let him pull her to her feet. He guided her over to the table, where a large white box was sitting. Pulling open the lid, he revealed a delicious-looking strawberry cake decorated with pink frosting and delicate roses.

"You got a cake," Erza said stupidly.

Gray smiled impishly, his eyes sparkling. "A backup cake, for if your cooking adventure ended badly. Cheer up! It's all good. I appreciate all the effort you put into trying."

Normally Erza would yell at him for assuming she would screw things up and preparing for the worst case scenario, but now she just sniffled some more and blinked back tears. "You don't like strawberry cake."

"But you love it," Gray said with a smile. "And I love you." Erza looked away, her face flaming, and Gray chuckled as he padded across the kitchen to rummage about in the freezer. "Anyway, I should have some ice cream around here in case it's really that bad…if you didn't melt it all."

"It doesn't say 'happy birthday'," Erza said.

"I just grabbed one of the premade ones. I didn't think to ask them to write anything. Oh well, I'll have another cake tomorrow anyway."

Unacceptable. Erza picked up her makeshift piping bag, and the tip of her tongue poked out of her mouth in concentration as she scrawled 'Happy birthday Gray' across the delectable pink icing. She had ruined his cake, so the least she could do was make this one into a proper birthday cake.

The results were…less than impressive. Half an hour of practice had not made her an expert, and her efforts resulted in a mass of white squiggles oozing across the cake like curly worms. Erza stared at it for a long moment before bursting into tears again.

Gray cursed and rushed back over to wrap an arm around her. "Hey, it's okay. What's wrong?"

"I ruined this cake too," Erza wailed, leaning into him. "I'm really sorry, Gray."

"I think it's beautiful," Gray whispered, leaning down to plant a kiss on her cheek. "Just like you."

Erza flushed scarlet again, which was happening far too often lately. She needed to find a way to fix that.

"That's super corny," she mumbled.

Gray grinned unrepentantly. "Guilty as charged."

Erza swallowed hard and looked between the cake and Gray. It was a rather ugly cake now that she had gotten her hands on it, and it was a flavor Gray didn't even like. But even so, he was smiling. So Erza smiled back a little shyly.

Maybe it was for the best. Strawberry cake was a thousand times more delicious than any other flavor, anyway.

* * *

 **Note: Poor Erza, you try so hard. And Gray is an angel lol**

 **Watching other people fail at cooking makes me feel better about my own lack of culinary talent. But I _can_ bake! That's something, right?**


	3. Rain

**.**

 **Rain**

* * *

The rain was falling in sheets, wavering on the borderline between gentle and violent, but Gray barely felt it. He stood out where the grass had been churned up by the passage of hundreds of weary footsteps and turned to thick black mud by the quiet deluge. One foot had slid into a muddy dent in the ground where water was gathering in a great puddle and creeping up over the interloping appendage with the grim determination to swallow it whole. Gray didn't bother stepping away or looking for better ground on which to stand. He hardly felt it anyway, and he had turned to stone as he watched Erza.

She was standing right in front of him, but her back was to him. She hadn't looked at him once. A wide pink umbrella arched over her head, the one he had bought her years ago with the joke that it looked like her favorite strawberry cake. She had propped it on her shoulder to shield her head and half her back from his view, and the rain beat on the canvas dully. Mud was smeared over the toes of her boots and caked on the soles, and her bare legs were covered in goosebumps from the chill and streaks of water from when the rain blew sideways.

Gray wanted to tell her to go home where it was warm and dry. He wanted her to look at him. He wanted to say something, anything.

But she was the one who had come here seeking him out, the one who had called him. She was the one who had something to say, and he stayed quiet while she found the words, with only the sighing of the rain whispering in the air between them.

"You didn't come back," Erza said finally. "You left and you didn't come back."

Gray winced. He wanted to apologize, give explanations, make excuses.

"Erza…" he whispered, but his voice was lost beneath the melancholy lullaby of the rain.

"How dare you?" Erza asked, anger and pain and grief warring in her voice. "How could you do this to me? You were supposed to come home. You said you would be back, and you left me. You are a liar, Gray Fullbuster."

Gray swallowed and hunched his shoulders. The rain drummed an angry rhythm on the umbrella, like a torrent of accusations.

"I'm sorry," he said quietly. "I'm really sorry."

She didn't acknowledge him, which was nothing new or terribly surprising by this point. Silence fell between them, heavy and thick, while the rain moaned and sighed in a wordless lament of tears shed and times past. In the distance, a jagged streak of white burst from the underbelly of the bank of dark clouds to spiderweb across the sky in a great tangle of light and thunder rolled lazily in a low rumble. But here, with them, the sky was dark and quiet and misted with a veil of gray rain.

"I miss you," Erza whispered finally, and the sky's weeping couldn't disguise the waver in her voice. "I miss you so much, I want you to come home more than anything, but… I guess this is the end. I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. I love you, Gray. I still love you. I will always love you, no matter what. But…I guess maybe that doesn't matter anymore. Maybe it doesn't matter to you."

"It does," Gray said as the numbness shrouding him grew sharp edges like teeth to slice at his battered heart. He reached out, but hesitated before his fingers touched her skin. They hovered in the air a moment longer, their paleness lost beneath the gray haze of rain, but then he pulled them away and dropped his hand back to his side. "It does matter to me."

"But I do. I will love you forever. Goodbye, Gray."

The farewell was heavy with finality.

She turned finally and shouldered past him without even glancing his way. He caught a glimpse of tearstained cheeks tucked behind curtains of scarlet hair, tears that could have blended seamlessly with the rain if they weren't sheltered beneath the umbrella. She walked away without another word, tramping along the grassy aisle and leaving deep footprints in the mud that began immediately collecting water.

Gray stared after her. He wanted to call her back, wanted her to turn around and look at him with those beautiful brown eyes of hers and acknowledge him.

"I love you too," he said instead. "I will always love you, Erza."

Erza stopped in her tracks, her heart hammering a staccato rhythm against her ribcage as she turned back. Just for a moment, faint beneath the gentle susurration of the rain, she had thought she heard…

But no. When she squinted through the rain, all she saw was what she expected to see: the marble gravestone set in the grass with a splash of bright red at its base, the rose she had brought this visit lying on a bed of withered brown petals crumbling to ash from visits past.

And if there had ever been anyone else there at all, the rain washed away every last trace.

* * *

 **Note: Written to fit into the same verse as Playlist, hence all the connections and common elements, but it can stand on its own too. Idk where this even came from. I just didn't want to write about Juvia finding out about Grayza and making it rain everywhere lol**


	4. Crossover

**.**

 **Crossover**

* * *

Gray was strolling towards the guild bright and early, the sun shining down cheerfully and the sea of swarming passersby babbling in a drowsy hum of sound as they went about their morning business, when he caught a flash of a familiar scarlet hue weaving among the crowd. His eyes lit up and a smile tugged at the corners of his mouth as he shouldered his way through the clumps of pedestrians and slipped through the crowd. He didn't normally see Erza on the way to the guild, so she wouldn't be expecting him either.

He snuck up behind her and wrapped an arm around her waist. "Good morning, beautiful," he said, grinning mischievously and pecking her on the cheek. "Wanna skip the guild and go on an impromptu date instead?"

The next thing he knew, he was in a heap on the ground with blinding pain radiating from his nose and across his cheek. "Ow! What the hell, Erza?" He clutched at his throbbing face and glared up at his girlfriend. "Why would you…?" He trailed off as he got a good look at her for the first time, and he could feel the blood draining from his face. "You… You aren't my Erza…"

The features were nearly identical, but the eyes were sharp, hard, cold. Come to think of it, his Erza didn't normally wear her hair like that and those weren't her normal clothes.

" _Your_ Erza?" the other Erza asked, arching an eyebrow. Her eyes glinted coolly as she looked him up and down. "I remember her."

"You're…"

"Knightwalker."

"From Edolas."

"Correct."

"But–but– What are you doing _here_?"

Gray stared at her like she was an alien from another dimension, which was not too far from the truth. Edolas had been so long ago, and that entire world should have been sealed off when all the magic was sucked out of it. And now, somehow, someone from Edolas had made it here?

The gears in Gray's brain spun uselessly, and he could feel a headache coming on to match the throbbing of his smashed-in face. None of this made any sense to him.

Then it occurred to him that Edo-Erza had not actually been a friend. She had hunted Fairy Tail members in her own world and attacked the ones who were kidnapped there. And this time, Erza wasn't around to fight her interdimensional clone.

Gray scrambled to his feet and stepped back, eyeing Edo-Erza warily and preparing to either fight or run. For now, the dangerous newcomer just narrowed her eyes at him.

"Good question," she said. "I haven't the faintest idea, but I'm looking for the way back. It happened quite suddenly."

"Well… At least you didn't get sucked into a giant lacrima?" Gray joked weakly. He surreptitiously glanced around for an escape route and inched backward another step. "Um… Maybe we can…find someone who can figure this out?"

Edo-Erza waved a dismissive hand. "Of course. But first…" She stepped towards him, head tilting as she raked curious, almost hungry eyes over him. Gray swallowed hard and inched away. "You are in a…love affair with the Erza of this world?"

Gray turned beet red and nearly coughed up a lung. "A-a _love affair_?" he spluttered. "We're dating, if that's what you mean."

"Dating," Edo-Erza repeated, rolling the word around on her tongue. "Interesting. I have never experienced this 'dating'. It seems like a romantic idea, but I don't quite understand. Teach me."

" _Teach you?_ " Gray repeated incredulously.

This Erza was harder, colder, sharper than his girlfriend, but she had that same awkward curiosity about the world, it seemed. He would just prefer that it wasn't directed at him, not when he was still worried she might stick a spear through him.

"Yes," Edo-Erza said impatiently. "You are already 'dating' the Erza of this world, and I am also Erza. You were already prepared to engage in such romantic acts with me. You can take me on this 'date' and demonstrate your romantic activities to me before I return to Edolas."

Gray could feel his face burning hotter and hotter the longer she talked. _Engage in romantic acts. Demonstrate romantic activities._ What did she _think_ he was trying to do? He fervently hoped that she was just being innocent and naïve like his Erza.

He cleared his throat awkwardly. "That's…uh… That's not really the same thing. I'm dating _my_ Erza, not you. I don't think she'd be happy to learn I was taking you on dates."

 _Erza, where are you?_ He looked around, desperate for backup, but saw no one he knew. He wanted Erza. He hoped she was alright. In about five seconds, he was going to bolt and look for her.

"Why?" asked Edo-Erza. "I am also Erza. In any case, you are only showing me how it is done. I will be returning to Edolas, so it's not as if you will be under any continued romantic obligations."

"Um… I think I'll pass, no offense. I don't think it's a good idea."

Her eyes hardened. "Well, I will make you a fair deal, then. We will duel. If you defeat me, you are free of this obligation. If I defeat you, you will take me on a 'date'."

Gray felt all the blood drain from his face at once. "W-wait, can't we–?"

She lunged at him and he scrambled backwards with a yelp, drawing curious looks from the surrounding crowd that quickly turned to alarm as Edo-Erza grabbed a broom from some poor, innocent shopkeeper just tidying up outside her store and stabbed Gray in the chest with it. He wheezed as the air was knocked out of his lungs. Edo-Erza raised her makeshift spear up over her head.

Gray turned and ran away as fast as his legs could carry him.

* * *

When Erza walked into the guild, she was puzzled to spot Gray wearing clothes. Well, not _clothes_ , exactly. His stripping habit had been slowly toned down to a manageable level, a process that had begun a while back but accelerated greatly when the two of them had begun dating a year and a half ago. Erza had insisted on it, and she gave Gray credit for compromising with her.

So it wasn't as unusual to see him in clothes these days, but in layers and layers and _layers_ of clothes? Absolutely inconceivable. He was wearing a _coat_. In the middle of the _summer_. Not only that, but he was wearing so many layers of clothing that he was looking like a poofy marshmallow.

"What in the world are you _wearing_?" she asked, striding over to plant herself in front of him and brace her hands on her hips.

His eyes went wide as saucers and he shrank back. "E-Erza? What do _you_ want?"

Erza's eyebrow ticked upward at his display. "You're being very strange. Has something happened? Anyway, ditch the extra clothes. You're going to absolutely _roast_ in this heat. I was thinking we might go out today. Maybe a lunch date?"

Gray's mouth worked soundlessly, and Erza frowned at him. His normal cocksure attitude had been eclipsed by a strange nervous energy. She hoped this didn't mean he had done something exceedingly stupid and was afraid of incurring her wrath when she discovered it.

"Juvia!" he wailed.

The name slapped Erza hard across the face and she gaped at him. " _Excuse me?_ "

She made a grab for Gray's arm, but he was already scuttling away to throw himself at Juvia.

The blue-haired girl sighed and rolled her eyes. "Not now, Gray. Grow up. You aren't a child."

"But–"

"Oh, just let go already. Honestly, you're so clingy."

Erza stared, open-mouthed. Was this opposite day or something? Usually Juvia was the clingy one who couldn't take no for an answer and Gray was the one who quickly grew irritated with the unwanted attention.

More importantly, _why was her boyfriend fawning over Juvia?_

She drew herself up to her full height and stoked up her inner fire. "What do you think you're–?"

"Gray-sama!" Juvia rushed past to throw herself at Gray.

Erza's jaw hit the floor. There were _two_ Juvias?

"I see you've become aware of the…situation," Lucy said.

Erza turned and nearly fainted as she came face to face with two Lucys. "…I think someone might have drugged me. I'm seeing double."

She listened in disbelief as the Lucys took turns explaining that the Edolas Fairy Tail had mysteriously been zapped to Earthland and everyone was scrambling to figure out what had happened and how to send them back home. Levy had hauled out any and every book that had even the slightest possibility of being useful, and mages were poring over the texts and asking questions and swapping ideas.

Erza was willing to forgive Gray since it seemed that this wasn't her Gray at all. Which raised the question of where her Gray actually was. No one had seen him, but she figured he would show up here sooner or later. She didn't see her own Edolas counterpart either, which was a little disappointing. She was curious if Knightwalker had really changed her ways after their moment of understanding right at the end of their last encounter. But it seemed like she hadn't been shunted to Earthland with the others.

Erza helped Levy and the others search for answers and brainstorm solutions, but kept getting distracted by Edo-Gray and the Juvias. It was disturbing to see Gray clinging to Juvia like that, even if it wasn't _Gray_ -Gray. Normal Juvia seemed content to settle for Edo-Gray since she had zero chance with theirs, and she and Edo-Juvia had begun comparing notes about their respective Grays. Edo-Juvia was totally savage, while Juvia gushed and praised Gray to the high heavens.

Which did not amuse Erza. Gray _was_ amazing, but he was _hers_ and it was annoying to hear Juvia always going on about him.

"Your Gray sounds much more exciting," Edo-Juvia said, interest gleaming in her eyes.

"Hands off," Erza growled. "He's mine."

Edo-Juvia rolled her eyes, Juvia sighed in despair, and Edo-Gray was looking like a lost puppy as he looked between the two.

Erza had had just about enough of that, so she decided to hunt down her missing boyfriend. She looked everywhere she could think of, all their normal haunts, and came up empty. He was nowhere to be found. When she returned to the guild to check if he had shown up in her absence, he was still gone.

She tried helping the Edolas rescue effort for a few more minutes, but she couldn't concentrate with the whole Gray-Juvia mess and snuck away. She tiptoed back to the storeroom, where she figured she could hide for a little while without being disturbed.

When she opened the door, there was a rustling sound and Gray's head popped up from behind a pile of junk.

He blinked at her. "Erza?"

"Gray? What are you–?"

"Shhh!" he hissed, holding a finger to his lips.

Erza frowned at her boyfriend in the light slicing across the shadowy room through the doorway. He was looking rather beat up, with a bruise blooming black and purple across his cheek like a storm cloud and more bruises just visible along his arms.

"What happened to you?" she asked in a quieter voice, shutting the door behind her and squinting until her eyes adjusted to the gloom as she crept over to his shadowy form. "Why are you in here?"

"Hiding," Gray grunted. He reached out to take her arm and guide her over the pile of junk to sit beside him on the wooden floorboards. "Okay, crazy stuff is happening today. I swear I saw–"

"People from Edolas?" Erza suggested. "Yeah, we're trying to figure out what happened and how to send them back. I couldn't find you, so I was just going to camp out here for a while because I got tired of your Edolas counterpart fawning over Juvia and our Juvia fawning over him."

"Maybe we can send Juvia back with them," he muttered under his breath.

Erza tried to cover her laugh with a cough and a stern expression. "That's not very nice."

"Neither is she," he grumbled. "She'd be in seventh heaven if she had another Gray to harass. At least she'd have more of a chance with that one."

"Be that as it may…" Erza's eyes adjusted as well as they ever would, and she frowned at the awkward way Gray was holding his arm. "What happened?"

"…I ran into your Edolas counterpart. Thought she was you for a second. She decided that since we were dating in this world, it would be okay if I took her on a date and taught her about romance."

Erza's mouth dropped open for what felt like the thousandth time today. " _What?_ "

"Yeah. I said no, so she said we'd fight to see if I had to take her out or could avoid it. She's a _monster_ , no joke. Like, you can be scary violent, but she's something else entirely. She scares the crap out of me. She was chasing me around the city hitting me with a _broom_! And punching me and throwing me around! It was horrible!"

"With a _broom_?"

"First thing she found that looked kind of spear-like, I guess."

Erza shook her head slowly. Knightwalker was a beast, even if she wasn't still evil. No wonder Gray was such a mess.

"Who won?" she asked. "Did you take her out?"

Gray shot her the most disbelieving look she'd seen in all her life. "Are you kidding? I didn't stick around to find out! I hightailed it out of there as fast as my legs could carry me and ran all over the city until I lost her and came here to hide. I refuse to leave this room until she's gone."

Erza patted him on the arm. "It sounds like you have suffered terribly today. I'm sorry. I have to say, our Edolas counterparts are interesting people, but I'm glad we aren't dating them."

"I agree!" Gray said wholeheartedly.

Erza laughed. "What should we do now?"

"Stay down here until the guild figures out how to get rid of the crazies. They can do it themselves. It's not like they need us for it."

Erza had to agree. She had no desire to go back out and watch the circus some more…especially not Edo-Gray and the Juvias' corner.

The floor was hard and uncomfortable, but Gray found some rags and cloths to make a little nest and they curled up together. They talked a little, speculating about the Edolas mystery and planning out a celebratory date for when the mess was fixed, but the dark and their quiet voices eventually lulled Erza to sleep.

She woke up some indeterminate length of time later, snuggled up to Gray's chest with his arms around her as they slumbered peacefully in their makeshift nest.

"Erza!" Lucy was calling from the other room. "Gray! Where are you?"

"Has anyone seen them?" Mira asked.

"I haven't seen the ice block all day," Natsu said. "Erza was here earlier, but I haven't seen her for a while."

"Where could they have gone?" asked Levy. "You… You don't think that something might have gone wrong with the spell? What if they accidentally got sucked back to Edolas with everyone else?"

"No way!" Lucy wailed. "That would be horrible! How could we get them back?"

"Wait, we banished the ice princess to another dimension?" Natsu asked in excitement. "Awesome!"

" _Natsu!_ "

Gray snickered, and Erza tilted her head up to smile at him sleepily.

"I guess we should go put their worries to rest," she said.

"Nah, let them sweat it out." Gray yawned and nuzzled at her hair as he wrapped his arms around her more tightly and snuggled back down in the blankets. "Five more minutes."

Erza laughed and let her eyes drift shut while the steady thumping of Gray's heartbeat in her ear began lulling her back to sleep. "Five more minutes."

* * *

 **Note: What? That _totally_ counts as a crossover. It's got charries from different worlds interacting, doesn't it? XD It's just an...in-universe crossover lol But that was the only way I was going to write one, so...**


	5. Friends to Lovers

**Note: The site didn't bother bumping this when I posted yesterday despite my best efforts to respect the 24-hour rule, so you'll have to go back if you don't remember seeing Crossover. Sorry lol**

 **Actually, the site has been on the fritz this evening too and wouldn't let me access half of it for a while, so I'm going to blame glitches rather than user error this time lol**

* * *

 **Friends to Lovers**

* * *

They had started off as something considerably less than friends. Gray and Erza had both been broken children and found each other insufferable.

Everything had changed with the river, when Gray had found Erza crying and they had both slowly come to realize that there was more to the other than met the eye. They didn't become best friends overnight, but they gradually grew closer and closer.

They were already good friends by the time they formed a team with Natsu and Lucy and Happy. They might not talk about their pasts or most emotional matters, but they had learned how to read each other. How to comfort or protect or back off. They could chat and laugh together and tease, even when Erza was complaining about Gray's stripping and Gray was complaining that Erza was a monster for beating him and Natsu up when they annoyed her. Whatever they talked about or didn't talk about, they had their own kind of quiet understanding that was stronger than the secrets they kept.

Galuna and the Tower of Heaven dragged their pasts into the spotlight and drew them ever closer together. They had seen each other at their most vulnerable, fought to protect each other from their demons, helped pick up the broken pieces after. Gray might have had a tiny crush on Erza before, but it was around this time that he well and truly fell in love.

He never expected anything to come of it, knowing what he did about Jellal, but Erza had always surprised him. They were lazing down at the river with picnic food spread around them on blankets on a day a long time later, a long time after Lyon had reconciled with Gray and Jellal had shown up alive, when Natsu and Lucy and Happy had run off on another job of their own. Those three ran off together frequently these days, and it gave Gray and Erza time to hang out when they were left behind.

They had been chatting about innocuous things, first and foremost the likelihood of their friends losing more money than they made on their job thanks to Natsu's destructive streak, when Erza turned to Gray with a serious expression on her face.

"If I wait for Jellal, I'm going to be waiting forever, aren't I?"

Gray blinked at her, taken aback by the sudden change of topic. Even more so because they almost never talked about Jellal. And even _more_ so because he thought she was right but wasn't sure she wanted to hear that.

"Well…I don't know," he hedged. Jellal seemed content to wallow in his guilt and self-pity, and more interested in his atonement with Oración Seis than in sucking it up and coming back to the woman who had spent years waiting on him. But whether Erza knew or suspected that, Gray doubted it was something she really wanted to hear from him. "He might come around eventually."

She tilted her head and searched his face with serious eyes. "But you don't think he will." It wasn't quite a question.

"Well… Not really, but who knows?"

Erza nodded to herself and frowned down at her hands while Gray fidgeted. "He hasn't been here for me in a long time, and I don't know if he ever will be again. But you've always been here for me. You won't leave, will you?"

"Of course not! Erza, is everything alright?"

She was quiet for a long time before saying, "You like me, don't you?"

"Of course. We're friends, aren't we?"

"No, I mean… You're in love with me, aren't you?"

"W-what?" Gray sputtered, heat splashing across his face. He stared at her in horror, wondering if he'd really been that obvious. He had thought he was pretty good at hiding it and playing the role of best friend. "W-why would you think–?"

Erza leaned in close, and Gray broke off as his breath caught in his throat and his heart hammered against his ribcage. She was studying him carefully, gauging his reaction and searching for answers. Whatever she saw seemed to satisfy her.

She leaned in, her breath warm against his face, and kissed him. Gray's brain short-circuited, and he was a confused mess when she leaned back and studied him some more.

"I thought I was in love with Jellal," she said. "But I've never felt the same way about anyone else that I've felt about you."

And that was that.

In some ways, not much changed. It felt more like a natural progression of their relationship than an earthshattering transformation. They were already best friends, already knew each other better than anyone, and that was what they built their relationship on. They tried cute couple things for a while, but found they suited neither of them. They still hung out—outings that were now christened 'dates'—and ate lunch together and lazed by the river and everything they had done before. They just did more of it now, and something had shifted in the air between them to make it feel somehow _deeper_.

"That's so cute!" Lucy had squealed when she heard the news. "It's so adorable to see childhood best friends fall in love!"

She was more of a romantic than Gray and Erza.

Still, Gray and Erza had built their own romance and kindled their own flames. They were each other's support and comfort first and foremost. They had started as friends—if you didn't count everything from before the riverbank, at least—and they would always be best friends above everything else. The romance, that came after. The desire, the passion, the love. They had it all. It was perfect, everything Gray could have dreamed of.

When he had finally proposed, she had said yes and kissed him senseless before taking the ring and roses.

Such memories usually made Gray smile, but today he stood still and quiet and his lips didn't so much as twitch as he watched Erza spin in a circle with her gaze sweeping over the room one last time.

"I think that's all," she said. She picked up the bag at her feet and swung it over her shoulder.

"Do you want me to carry that for you?" Gray asked.

"No, no, I'm fine, thank you." She made to walk past him, but paused to give him a small smile. "Thank you for being so understanding. It means a lot."

"Of course." He followed her to the door and opened it for her.

She stood in the doorway, hesitating. "Friends?"

"Always," he replied. "Best friends."

She smiled, her eyes soft and a little melancholy. "Thank you. I'll always love you, Gray. I'll see you around! Take care of yourself."

She pressed something cool and round and hard into his hand and gave him a kiss on the cheek. Waving to him one last time, she whirled about and bounced down the walk to where Jellal was waiting for her. She slipped her hand into his, and they walked off down the street together.

Gray watched them go. The past weeks had been difficult, crushing and heartbreaking, but now he just felt hollow and burned out. He didn't need to look to know what Erza had given him, but he uncurled his fingers anyway to stare down at the engagement ring glittering in his palm. They had built up their romance so high, stoked the flames so hot, but in the end it had been charred to ash.

They had been friends to lovers.

And now they were lovers to friends.

* * *

 **Note: Yeah, I wasn't feeling this prompt X) Sooorry lol Also, it felt too much like it was trying to pen me into doing something specific, so I did the exact opposite because I am a very contrary person XD**


	6. Assassin--Spy AU

**.**

 **Assassin/Spy AU**

* * *

The light had dimmed by the time Gray snuck out of the castle and slipped around the side to squint into the gloom. Satisfaction lit a warm flame in his chest, and he couldn't help but grin even though he wasn't entirely out of danger yet.

"You fools," he said with a chuckle, tilting his head back to look up at the yellow light streaming through the window high above. There was a gathering of lords and ladies there, but he was free to escape now instead of cozying up to them and working his way into their ranks. "You never even realized you had a spy in your midst, but I _am_ the best of the best. Fare thee well, and I shall miss you not. Soon you will pay for what you have done to my people."

He couldn't quite read the small print scrawled across the twenty or so pages of parchment clutched in his hand in the dusky light, but he had pored over every one during the time he'd been infiltrating the enemy fortress. He had sniffed out their plans, stolen their documents, and taken note of anything that could provide his liege an advantage when the time came for war. Tucking the precious documents into his coat, he swept a wary glance across the courtyard.

The castle loomed high behind him and its windows cast slashes of light across the green turf, lighting the way through the gray gloom. Shadowy trees and shrubbery dotted the terrain, and each one was a potential hiding place.

For he knew that the deadly beautiful assassin with hair as red as the blood she spilled prowled these grounds. She had been hunting him since he had set foot here, and they had danced around each other for years in a game of cat-and-mouse. He had always escaped with his life thus far, but he knew better than to underestimate her.

Casting one last contemptuous look at the castle and the foolish nobles it housed, he slunk across the courtyard, sliding silently between the cover of the trees and bushes. And then he stepped out from behind the crinkled trunk of a tree and came face to face with her. The assassin that dogged his steps.

He drew up short, a feeling of unease stroking its fingers down his spine. As a rule, he was not the one who stumbled across her. She hunted him, slid between the shadows like a phantom and materialized when he least expected it. This was the first sign that something was not entirely right.

The second was that she did not immediately slide a knife between his ribs, but stared at him with wide brown eyes that held not icy wrath but…something like fear.

"You!" Gray said, drawing the sword hanging from the cheap scabbard at his waist. "Must you always dog my steps like a vengeful fury? Come, we shall settle this tonight, once and for all."

She opened her mouth, but only a choked, strangled sound escaped her lips. She was looking rather pale, her face wan and ghostly in the dim light streaming down from the castle walls.

Gray eyed her in alarm, painfully aware that they were quickly veering off the beaten path. "Speak ye now, or I shall silence you forever!"

The assassin cleared her throat, and her voice came out as a high, reedy whine instead of its normal confident tone. "I–I– H-halt, you– Stop in–"

Oh dear. This did not bode well.

"Have I terrified you so much that you have lost your very voice?" Gray asked, his eyes shining with contempt as he lifted his chin. "Good. For we have plagued each other for far too long, and I intend to end our game tonight. You _should_ fear me."

"N-n-not you," she stuttered.

"Then what binds your tongue, angel of death? What say you?"

"I–I–" Her fingers were trembling so hard that she dropped the knife she was holding and it clattered to the ground.

Gray fought back a wince and bent to scoop up the weapon and offer it back to her with a flourish. "My honor does not permit me to fight an unarmed opponent. Take up your weapon, and let us dance."

She took the dull blade, but it immediately fell to the ground again. She winced. Her lips trembled and tears filled her eyes. "S-sorry, I–"

Gray leaned forward until his breath tickled her ear. "You make a terrible assassin, my lady."

A loud chorus of shouts and hisses filled the air, and he glanced over at the angry mob swarming across the way. Something that looked suspiciously like a rotten tomato flew through the air and hit the assassin in the face. She lifted her shaking hand to her cheek, a stunned, desolate expression mixing with her fear.

Anger flared white-hot in Gray's chest. He reached out and wiped away the red goop.

"Could it be, my lady?" he asked. "Could it be that you do not wish to fight me for the same reason I do not wish to fight you?"

She gaped at him. "W-wha–?"

"For years we have danced around each other, and I have come to know of your strength and beauty and compassion." He wiped his hand on his shirt before taking her face in his hands and staring into those beautiful brown eyes. She stared back in shocked incomprehension. "I have fallen madly, deeply, desperately in love with you. Tell me, Erza, could it be that you love me too?"

She stared back at him for a long moment, and then a smile broke out on her face and her eyes softened. "Of course, Gray. You know that I love you with all my heart."

A boyish grin tugged at the corners of Gray's lips as he declared with all due drama, "Then let us set aside our vendetta and lay to rest our grudge! Let us leave behind the rulers who would set us against each other and run away, run as far as our legs can carry us until no one can keep us apart!"

He yanked the papers out of his coat and tossed them high into the air, and the plastic sword fell to the ground at his feet. He slid an arm around Erza's waist and pulled her close, leaning in to kiss her hard across the mouth.

The once-angry crowd began cheering wildly.

"Let us flee to the ends of the earth, my lady, and we shall find our freedom!"

Gray grabbed Erza's hand and tugged her along with him, and he heard her laugh. They ran away from the cinderblock castle, kicking aside prop knives as they raced past paper mache trees and shrubs and across the stretch of green-felted stage to burst through the curtain and stumble into the back rooms with peals of laughter. The crowd roared in excitement and loud clapping rang through the theater, muffled by the curtain separating them from the stage proper.

Rabian was bouncing up and down on his heels as they came bursting in, his purple hair standing on end and the beady black eyes set in his long face gleaming. "I can't believe it!" he said. "I thought you were totally going to ruin the show, but _you_ "—he grabbed Gray's free hand and shook it vigorously—"were brilliant! Amazing how you improvised like that. A love story between the spy and assassin! Brilliant! I should have thought of that myself. The audience is eating it up!"

Gray eyed the little man dubiously. He was not impressed by the quality of the play's writing and sketchy plotline, which made him look on the playwright and chairman of the theater with something less than admiration.

"You _were_ amazing," Erza conceded with a smile. Her trembling had subsided as her nerves settled, and she was starting to sound more like herself again. "I have no idea how you could just ditch the script and improvise everything like that. I have a hard enough time remembering my lines."

"The hardest part is remembering to talk like I traveled a few hundred years into the past," Gray said dryly, rolling his eyes. "I have no idea what I was actually saying, and I sounded like an idiot. Ugh. Honestly, why did you want to take this job again? Your stage fright was horrendous last time we tried putting on this guy's plays for him with the team. I can't believe people were throwing things at you!"

Erza stuck out her lower lip in a pout. "I worked so hard that I was _sure_ I'd overcome my nerves this time. I nearly ruined the whole production!"

"You make a horrible assassin, and an even worse actress," Gray agreed. He leaned in, grinning like a Cheshire cat. "But you're the best girlfriend."

Erza turned redder than a rotten tomato, but smiled back more shyly. "You're not so bad yourself."

Gray laughed. There were several large bouquets of flowers lining the wall, either received for a previous performance or waiting to be handed out for a later one. He snatched up one bursting with roses and little white and pink blossoms and presented it to Erza.

"In celebration of your performance," he said grandly.

Erza smiled sheepishly as she accepted the flowers and buried her nose in them. "My performance was terrible, but thank you."

"We will have to continue putting on the play!" Rabian declared. "It's going over so splendidly. How many shows would fit into a day, do you think?"

Gray cringed, remembering when the team had last accepted a job to help him with his play and he'd held their payment hostage for weeks while forcing them to perform up to three shows a day. Yeah, not happening again.

"What say you, my lady?" Gray asked, winking at Erza. "Shall we flee to the ends of the earth and find our freedom?"

Erza grinned back and slipped her hand into his again. "That, my good sir, is a marvelous idea."

And they ran out of the theater, leaving the playwright to shout after them as they raced through the streets and left a trail of laughter and flower petals in their wake.

* * *

 **Note: What? That _totally_ counts as an assassin/spy AU. It's just an alternate universe...inside the canon universe. Look, I'm the queen of finding loopholes lol**

 **And yes, this is the reason Gray and Erza digressed to chatting about plays and stage fright in the cooking adventure prompt. Don't say I didn't warn you it was coming XD**

 **It's so cheesy, but it cracks me up lol**


	7. First Kisses

**.**

 **First Kisses**

* * *

In general, it took Gray a while to warm up to people. It had taken over a month before he got used to Cana, and Erza only became bearable after the river. Natsu held the record. It had taken months and months. Five months later, they were sort of friends. They still fought and annoyed each other, but now the fights were less serious and sometimes just for fun.

Today, there was no big reason for them to be fighting. Well, maybe there was. Natsu had just unveiled his newest nickname for Gray: ice princess. Gray was _not amused_. He had almost started pounding on the other boy right in the middle of the guild hall, but Erza was lurking around and the adults would tell them to take it outside anyway. Instead, he grabbed Natsu's shirt and dragged him outside, where they'd circled around to the side of the hall out of the way of the street and proceeded to smash each other's faces in.

Gray was _pretty sure_ he was winning, but then Natsu shoved him hard in the chest and he flew back toward the wall and landed in a thorny bush. Technically it was a rose bush, but it was a sickly thing that never really bloomed because no one had a green thumb around here. Gray had always been of the opinion that it was an eyesore and should be removed, and now he was cursing all the stupid adults who had planted a _highly dangerous_ bush out here and neglected to dig it up even when they couldn't make it grow anything but thorns.

"Ow!" he cried with an unholy screech.

The thorns snagged at his clothing and held it fast, and he couldn't find his footing. The feeling of being trapped sent him into a panic. He floundered about, flailing his limbs in desperation to escape, and the thorns sliced through his skin like tiny knives. The more he struggled, the more tangled he became. But how could he _not_? It _hurt_ , and he needed to escape _right now_.

"Holy crap!" Natsu said, rushing over to peer down with wide eyes. "Are you okay?"

"Do I _look_ okay?" Gray snarled. A thorn sliced across his arm, and a wail escaped his lips before he could choke it back.

Natsu was actually looking rather worried now, which wasn't a good sign since usually he delighted in watching Gray squirm. "Hold on, I'll burn you out!"

He held up his hand and fire burst to life around his fist. Gray's eyes widened and he redoubled his efforts to untangle himself. Which he quickly realized was a mistake when he sank further into the thorny embrace of the bush and garnered dozens of new scratches that stung and burned.

"Stay the hell away from me! You're going to burn me alive! No fire!"

"But how else am I supposed to get you out?"

That was a good question, and one Gray didn't know how to answer. Thankfully, he didn't have to.

Reinforcements arrived in the form of a small crowd of mages swarming around the side of the building to see what all the commotion was about. Gray had little use for adults in general, but maybe they could make themselves useful for once and get him out of this predicament.

"Oh dear," said someone. "What happened?"

A small, red-haired girl pushed her way through the adults' legs and marched over to regard Gray, who winced. He might be on better terms with Erza, they might even be something like friends now, but she could be scary as hell when she found him and Natsu fighting.

"Stop thrashing around," she said. "You're making it worse."

Gray stopped. Nothing short of Erza's decree could have made him overcome his brain's panicked fight response, but she was scarier than a rose bush.

"I was trying to get him out, but he got all snippy about my fire," Natsu said, trying to rack up brownie points. Gray scowled over at him.

Erza just shook her head, her braid swaying back and forth across her back. "How did you get yourself stuck in a rose bush?"

"I…tripped?" Gray suggested weakly.

Her eyebrow crept slowly up her forehead. "You just happened to trip backward into a rose bush well off the beaten path?"

"…Natsu might have helped."

"So… You two were fighting again?"

Gray winced. "We're friends," he said, stealing her own words to get them out of this bind. "Friends shouldn't fight, right?"

"Maybe," Natsu said at the same time. Gray glared at him.

Erza rolled her eyes. "Let's get you out."

She pulled a sword out of thin air and Gray flinched back, the thorns tugging at his clothing and snagging his skin. He eyed the blade in alarm, wondering which body parts he was going to lose to this. He wondered if it was too late to go back to the option of Natsu's fire. He might prefer to have his wounds cauterized than lose an arm.

"I'm sorry!" he squeaked. "Please don't kill me!"

Erza didn't deign to respond. She hacked at the thorny branches, and Gray shrank back as far as he could while bits and pieces of debris went flying.

"Aw," one of the adults cooed. "Can you believe they used to hate each other?"

Gray was too terrified of getting his head chopped off to glare or snap out a nasty remark. Erza's sword slashed a little too close to his arm, but then she slowed down and engaged in a more delicate procedure of carefully cutting away branches or pushing them out of the way with the flat of her blade.

Within a couple minutes, she had grabbed Gray by the front of his shirt and dragged him out of his thorny prison.

"Holy crap," he breathed, his legs wobbly like a newborn fawn. "I'm alive."

"Of course," Erza said with a sniff. "I said I'd get you out, didn't I?"

"You didn't say _in one piece_ ," he muttered.

"Quit whining."

She punched Gray on the arm, and he screeched and jerked away. There were streaks of red slicing across every inch of uncovered skin, and each one smarted and stung. His whole body was throbbing with the vengeance of a thousand malicious rose thorns.

"Not my fault!" Natsu said defensively.

Erza frowned at Gray. "Is it really that bad?"

"Of course it is," he snapped back. "It _hurts_."

"Hm…" Erza leaned in until their noses were almost touching, and Gray's eyes went wide as she searched his face with a solemn expression. His breath caught in his throat and he could feel the heat working its way across his cheeks at how close she was. "I can fix that."

"Wha–?"

Erza kissed him on the cheek, and he choked out a strangled sound of disbelief. Someone whistled. She kissed him twice more on his cheek and nose while he stood stiff as a board and the gears in his brain spun uselessly, then snatched up his arm and began planting quick pecks all over it.

"Ew," said Natsu.

Gray spluttered some more, but finally came to his senses and snatched his arm away. "What the hell?"

"Cana says that kissing scrapes and scratches makes them better," Erza said seriously. She stared intently at the scratches on his arm, as if expecting to see them seal up and heal in front of her very eyes. "Like magic."

"Y-you…"

She huffed out a breath and turned away. "Well. That was disappointing. I was expecting something a bit more magical."

Gray gaped after her as she walked away without a backward look.

"Aw," cooed someone. "Young love is so adorable!"

"Wait," said Natsu. "They're in _love_? Ewww…"

"I–I–" Gray shuddered and held his arm well away from his body as he stared at it in horrified disgust. "Bath! I need a bath right now! Cooties! Cooties everywhere!"

He took off as fast as his stubby little legs could carry him, running for home and a nice warm bath with lots of soap. The adults broke into raucous laughter as he raced past them.

"Give it a few years," Makarov said with a knowing chuckle.

* * *

 **Note: LOL I feel like such a troll. I can't help it—the prompts that try to make me write something specific just make me want to find loopholes. Aside from the cooking one, because I can never have too much of Erza's kitchen disasters.**

 **Also, the thought of baby Gray running around all "Cooties! Cooties everywhere!" cracks me up something terrible XD**


	8. Bonus Day-Second Kisses

**.**

 **Bonus Day–Second Kisses**

* * *

Erza had stopped by the bakery earlier that morning—it was never too early for strawberry cake—and happened to take a shortcut around the side of the guild instead of looping around to the front via the road. She didn't usually come by this way, so the rose bush caught her by surprise. It was nestled against the side of the guild hall, blooming blood red and beautiful. She had almost forgotten it was here.

If she recalled correctly, it had actually been here for a long time. But it had always been a sickly, withered thing that rarely bloomed and was more a tangle of thorny branches than anything. Droy had taken it up as his pet project a few months back, and luckily he actually had a green thumb and had somehow nursed it back to health. Erza was so surprised by the transformation that she wondered if he hadn't just dug up the old bush and planted a new and improved one to take credit for the miraculous revival.

It really was a far cry prettier than it had been before. Erza thought she remembered a time long ago, back when it had still been little more than a patch of thorns, that Gray had gotten tangled in it and she had rescued him.

She smiled at the memory. Gray sure had been a troublesome child. Her smile softened a little. But he had a heart of gold, had had one even back then despite always trying to hide it, and she had fallen in love with it. She couldn't say exactly when that had happened, but she had known unequivocally that she was in love with him for months now. She suspected he might like her too and had been trying to give subtle signs of interest to gauge his reaction, but he hadn't said anything and she was nervous about assuming because he was good at hiding his true feelings and could be hard to read.

She reached out, intending to take a rose for nostalgia's sake, but bit out a loud curse when a thorn snagged her skin. She jerked her hand back and stuck the tip of her finger into her mouth as she regarded the bush with a new and intense hatred.

"Stupid bush," she growled. Pulling her finger away from her mouth, she reached out and a sword materialized in her hand. "I'll show you! I'll hack you apart for that!"

"Um… Erza?"

She jumped in surprise and whirled about. "Gray?"

Gray's head poked out from around the side of the building, and he was watching her with wide eyes. Erza flushed at the thought that she had been loud enough to attract his attention and warrant investigation.

"Are you…okay?" Gray asked cautiously, eyeing the sword in her hand.

Erza cleared her throat awkwardly and banished the blade again. "Um, yeah. I was going to pick a rose and a thorn got me, that's all."

"So you were going to hack apart the whole bush with a sword?" Gray asked in amusement as he rounded the corner and strolled over. Now that the sword was gone and the danger level had been established as _nonexistent_ , he seemed much more relaxed. "And right after Droy finally got it healthy. You'd break his heart."

"It _stabbed_ me," Erza muttered mutinously.

"I seem to recall it doing a lot worse to me at one time. One little scratch shouldn't warrant a massacre. Although… I do seem to recall you doing a number on this thing back in the day too."

"Obviously I should have torn it up by the roots," she said stiffly.

Gray just laughed and thrust his hand into the bush to carefully detach a rose. Ice crept up over the stem to cover the thorns and frost lightly glazed the edges of the petals to set them glittering in the light. He offered Erza the flower with a grand flourish and leaned in close with a smirk.

"For the lady," he said.

Heat crawled up Erza's neck and across her cheeks as she accepted the gift. "Th-thank you," she mumbled.

"Are you alright?" Gray leaned forward another centimeter until their noses were almost touching and let his gaze roam over her face. "You turned all red."

"Y-yeah," Erza stammered, her face burning. Gray was so close, close enough that she could cross the gap and kiss him, and it turned her brain to mush. "I–I like you," she blurted out, and was immediately mortified.

Gray blinked at her slowly in bemusement, but then leaned in a little more until his mouth was right next to her ear and his warm breath tickled her skin as he whispered, "Can I kiss you?"

Erza swallowed hard, hardly daring to believe this was happening. "Yes," she breathed.

Gray nodded to himself, snatched up her hand, and kissed the tip of the finger that had been wounded in the valiant fight against the rose bush. Erza stared at him, her mouth hanging open and the gears in her brain spinning uselessly.

Gray dropped her hand and stepped back, grinning widely. "There, all better!"

Erza stared some more. "What…?"

"Kissing scratches is supposed to make them better," he said, all wide-eyed innocence. "Like magic."

"You–you–" Erza whipped around and began stalking away without another word, humiliation ravaging her insides.

She just wanted to get _away_. Clearly there had been some kind of miscommunication somewhere along the way, and it made her want to sink into the ground and die of embarrassment. She couldn't even bear to see Gray right now, couldn't stand how she had just thrown herself at him and expected something more.

A hand closed around her arm and brought her to a stop, and Gray was grinning roguishly as he spun her back around.

"I love you too," he said with a chuckle.

He pulled her close, circled an arm around her waist, and kissed her right on the mouth. After a moment of dazed incomprehension, Erza came to her senses and kissed him back, her heart fluttering with hope.

And Gray had been right: it was like magic.

* * *

 **Note: To help make up for yesterday's prompt lol This touching scene would obviously be followed by Erza punching Gray in the face for teasing her XD**

 **Well, that's a wrap. I'll probably never do another shipping week again, but it was fun to do it once. Definitely an exercise in creativity to find loopholes for all the prompts lol**


End file.
